What is Abhyasa?

The commercial aspects of teaching yoga or running a yoga studio can often be stressful and complicated. What is more challenging is the expectations or results from the practice. Will yoga help me lose weight? How soon will my hormones regularise/periods become regular with yoga? How soon can I get off medication for stress with yoga? People who are keen to start the practice often come to us with these questions. The blame for this lies squarely with how yoga studios are marketing themselves.

The commercialisation of yoga and the positioning of the practice as an alternative to any other form of exercise or fitness regime has forced teachers to sell it with offers and promised results. We often sell 21-day yoga challenges and ‘master handstand in 2 weeks’ workshops, offering guaranteed results.

When one is in doubt and seeks answers, a guru shines a light on the age-old truths of the scriptures. I had an opportunity to attend a workshop recently. The guru, an outstanding and committed practitioner herself, was talking about what is an authentic practice: abhyasa. Verse 14 of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali says

“sah tu dirgha kala nairantaira satkara asevitah dridha bhumih”

You are firmly grounded in practice when the practice is done over a long time, continually, with sincerity.

We see people hoping for results in a few months without considering where they are starting from. We see people whose practice over a few years is scattered to a few weeks/months every year with long periods of breaks. We also see people who practice without applying effort or mind to that practice. They come for classes to tick off a personal goal of doing yoga every day.

Will you see the results/change you desire, whether it is weight loss, better health, improved sleep, reduced stress, more strength, mobility, or recovery from a health issue? The answer is a resounding YES. For centuries Yoga practice has yielded these results and led people to better health, increased awareness, and spiritual clarity. That will never change. The question that needs to be asked is, what is the effort one is willing to put into the practice? Will you practice for a long time? Sustainable change can only be achieved by putting effort in for a while. Shortcuts usually cut you short. Traditional yoga shaalas allowed one to teach only after you had put years of ‘sadhana’ in your practice, serving an excellent purpose of instilling strong consistency and a long period of dedicated effort.

Will you practice continually? If your practice has more gaps than consistency, the changes you see will also be sporadic and irregular. The yoga practitioners who find a renewed state of health and sense of self are the ones who have shown up for practice regularly. Apart from necessary breaks due to illness or emergency, they ensure that the practice is a part of their lives just like other activities like eating, sleeping, or working.

Will you practice with effort and sincerity? Efforts to improve and learn will motivate your teacher to correct your errors and guide you toward achieving more with your practice. When you take time out of your day for training, you should switch off distractions, put in your best effort, and practice with sincerity. However, if your presence in the class is limited to ticking off the ‘do something about your health’ box in your list, you will see that despite the best efforts from your teacher, you are stagnating in your practice.

These principles apply to your yoga practice and everything you want to achieve in life. Before wondering if you will see results or when you will see results, ask yourself what effort you are willing to put in. Look at your practice and assess whether it has been dirgha kala-over a long time, nairantaira- continual and satkara- sincere effort.